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Updated at 7.45pm
ONE PERSON WAS killed and another seriously injured in the southern French city of Marseille today after a convicted criminal with psychiatric problems drove a van into people waiting at two bus stops, police said.
The incident comes with Europe on high alert following last week’s car ramming attacks in northeastern Spain.
But Marseille’s prosecutor Xavier Tarabeux said there was no evidence of a terror connection and that the driver – who had several convictions for offences including robbery – was mentally unstable.
“He was found with a letter from a psychiatric clinic and we are leaning towards treating it as a mental health case,” Tarabeux told AFP.
The man first drove at speed at a bus stop in the city’s northern 13th district at around 9am (7am Irish time), hitting a woman who was rushed to hospital with serious pelvic injuries.
The driver of the stolen van then continued to the eastern 11th district, where he slammed into another bus stop, killing a 42-year-old woman.
The police caught up with him shortly afterwards in the city’s Old Port district, where he was arrested.
Several European cities, including London, Berlin and Stockholm, have been targeted in a wave of attacks by Islamist radicals using vehicles as killing machines. Many have been claimed by the Islamic State group.
Terrorism experts have warned that the intense media coverage of the violence could spur copycat attacks by people with mental health problems and a propensity for violence.
Marseille’s mayor Jean-Claude Gaudin said the driver of the van, who is in his mid-30s, had been in and out of psychiatric clinics.
The suspect was undergoing psychiatric tests today. He had yet to be questioned by investigators about his motives.
Several attacks thwarted
The bloodiest vehicle attack in Europe took place in July 2016 in the French city of Nice, when a radicalised Tunisian drove a truck through crowds celebrating Bastille Day, killing 86 people.
France has avoided a major incident in the past year but has suffered a slew of small-scale strikes, mainly targeting the security forces.
On 9 August, a 36-year-old Algerian ran down soldiers on anti-terrorism patrol west of Paris, injuring six.
Three days earlier, a knife-wielding 18-year-old on leave from a psychiatric hospital was arrested at the Eiffel Tower after bursting past security shouting “Allahu Akbar” (God is Greatest).
Police initially treated that case as a criminal affair but it was later upgraded to an anti-terror investigation after he said during questioning that he had wanted to kill a soldier.
Another reminder that the children’s hospital is being built in the wrong location. Every time there is an accident on the M50 roads into Dublin cannot manage the level of traffic.
Inside the M50 belt just does not make sense.
@Ciarán McPhillips: such a scary thought for a child to be in an ambulance and caught up on the M50. Disgraceful decision.
@Deborah Behan: We’re sleepwalking our way towards that exact situation. The mind boggles.
No doubt caused by some muppet hammering up the outside/city lanes and then nipping in to go northbound. We need to start a campaign to not let queue jumpers in.
@mcgoo:
Or perhaps allowing queue jumpers in would stop the accidents
Meanwhile here in Leitrim….
@Patrick J. O’Rourke: who cares about a dying county like Leitrim
@Michael Walsh: We are not dying. We’re generally quite happy that we don’t have to become a slave to make a living. Who cares about the septic tank that is Dublin? See…same question.
@Patrick J. O’Rourke: As a Dub myself id agree. Dublin is grinding to a standstill as we repeat the mistakes of the Celtic tiger years and continue to vote for political organisations who have their and not the nation as a whole best interests at heart.
@Patrick J. O’Rourke: jealous
@quality cheese: Did you post this on your 6 hour journey to work or from bed this morning? Hard to tell…. but “quality cheese”…… your at home
@Michael Walsh: like it or not your taxes keep Leitrim going.
@quality cheese: A tendency to resort to insults shows quite clearly a lack of intellect.
Tailgating is the problem. Its amazing cars doing 140kph tailgating just 1 metre behind the car in front. Amazing breaking system they must have to avoid a crash if the car in front suddenly breaks. KEEP YOUR DISTANCE. 1m for every 2kph. Eg a car must leave 200 metres distance at 100 kph.
@Brendan Mason: That and the roads were wet this morning, come this way every morning before 7am.
Speed limit drops from 100 kp to 80 kp, most people dont pay any heed to that.
Many go beyond it.
Zero police enforcement and bad driving skills, welcome to Irish driving!
@Brendan Mason: 1m for every 2kph? Therfore using your formula travelling around 100kph should have a gap of 50m not 200m. Anyway if anyone left a gap of 200m on an Irish motorway they’d be flashed at (lights) and abused by other road users.
@Brendan Mason: The accident happened close to the Luas car park junction before the M50. Given the time of morning the accident occurred, and it being a Monday which is probably the busiest morning of the week anyway, it’s virtually an impossibility that cars were traveling at 140kph, or anywhere remotely close to that speed.
@Tommy Roche: the 140 kph is an example. 4okph may be enough to cause a crash if cars are close enough to each other .
@Brendan Mason: 40 kph sorry.
@Brendan Mason: I drive as part of my job and find that if you do leave a gap to the car in front then you’ll always have a gimp who will try to squeeze their car into that gap meaning you have to jam on the breaks
@Brendan Mason: 1mtr behind a car in front driving at 140kmh? Bit of an exaggeration don’t you think. Most drivers wouldn’t be able to judge 60, 80,100mtrs. Little tip – if you are overtaking in the out most lane try keep right of centre of your lane. You will be able to see the break lights of the second car in front.
@Brendan Mason: if you keep the right distance some mope jumps in in front of you that cuts your distance your bolloxed then . This happens very often rant over
For a lot of tech companies e.g. Facebook, Dell, Amazon, people can work from home quite a bit. With some planning you dont need mega-speed broadband either. Can’t help but think some of these businesses could make the leap to commuter towns and beyond. Clonakility has a multinational, the workers have houses, sea-air, little traffic and are 30 mins from Cork for a bit of life, and the airport also. Not ignoring the lack of routes currently available, but if more large towns within 60 mins of Galway, Limerick and Cork were utilised, how much better would life be for people? It will only take one big tech company to lead the way.
Vomit. How do people put up with this shit everyday of their lives.
Life is short people.
@Ciarán McPhillips: I ment 50 metres for 100 kph.
70 metres for 140 kph etc.
@Brendan Mason: but they are not leaving a fraction of that distance. Gung ho. Flash lights. The road is mine attitude. Slap on the breaks etc.
@Brendan Mason:
Spot on. Clueless behaviour.
H
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